USER RECRUITMENT BOOTCAMP

UX Cambridge 2014

INSTRUCTOR

Emma MillingtonPeople for Research

WHY BOOTCAMP?

New to user research

New to user recruitment

Brush up skills

“Participant recruitment is the unglamorous foundation for all user testing”

How to Recruit Participants for Usability StudiesDeborah Hinder and Jakob Nielson, 2003

THE DRILLHow to start…writing a knock out brief

How to recruit who you want

Recruiting – how to find participants

Plan B – what to do if recruitment plan A fails

Mastering Challenging Segments

Safeguard your testing with damage limitation

BRIEFESSENTIALS

WHO?

WHAT?

WHERE?

WHEN?

LEAD TIME

HOW MANY?

INCENTIVES

STUDENTS£40

B2B / NICHE£200External $64(£38.78) How to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies, Deborah Hinder and

Jakob Nielson, 2003

MAKING SURE PARTICIPANTS MEET THE BRIEF

A GOOD SCREENER CONTAINS

An Introduction

Screen out criteria / questions

Terms (or statements) for participation: must remember to bring

ID

“The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference”

Usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html

PERSONAS

BOB is 19, has just begun a degree. He lives for social media and his smart phone is his life line. He has aspirations to own the most high tech, cutting edge gadgets but makes do with what he can afford on his student loan. Bob loves to socialise, is always in touch with his friends and enjoys going to live music gigs. He never has enough money so he is always on the look out for good deals.

JANET loves her job, 30 and with no kids, she works in conservation and regularly campaigns for animal rights. Janet enjoys holidaying in the UK, and prefers to stay in eco-friendly rustic accommodation. This year she is planning a trip with work to go and see the result of their conservation work in South America. Juliet usually avoids modern technology, but is aware that she will need some specialist navigation kit for this trip.  

JOHN is 48, works in a well-paid finance role for a private company. Having a young family means that John is careful with his money and closely monitors his investments. Hoping to pay for his children to go to University and a get a good start in life, John uses apps and various websites to keep abreast of the financial market place. They live in a rural location, and the commute in to the city is an excellent time for him to browse his apps and read the news on his iPad.

PERSONAS

BOB is 19, has just begun a degree. He lives for social media and his smart phone is his life line. He has aspirations to own the most high tech, cutting edge gadgets but makes do with what he can afford on his student loan. Bob loves to socialise, is always in touch with his friends and enjoys going to live music gigs. He never has enough money so he is always on the look out for good deals.

JANET loves her job, 30 and with no kids, she works in conservation and regularly campaigns for animal rights. Janet enjoys holidaying in the UK, and prefers to stay in eco-friendly rustic accommodation. This year she is planning a trip with work to go and see the result of their conservation work in South America. Juliet usually avoids modern technology, but is aware that she will need some specialist navigation kit for this trip.  

JOHN is 48, works in a well-paid finance role for a private company. Having a young family means that John is careful with his money and closely monitors his investments. Hoping to pay for his children to go to University and a get a good start in life, John uses apps and various websites to keep abreast of the financial market place. They live in a rural location, and the commute in to the city is an excellent time for him to browse his apps and read the news on his iPad.

SAMPLE PLANDemographics Bob Janet John

Age 19 (18-25) 30 (25-35) 48 (35-55)

Gender Male or Female Female Male

Children ? Presume none ? Presume none Yes – under 18

Lives with Wife and Young Family ? Partner / spouse & young family

Devices Smart Phone ? Smart Phone / Tablet

Salary / lifestyle / spend

Student - frugal Professional C1 - ? Professional A/B – affluent/luxury

Tech ability Savvy Avoider Savvy

PLAN AHOW TO FIND PARTICIPANTSFriends/family/colleaguesOnline forumsClient provided listsInternal recruitment teamsExternal recruiters

PLAN BWHAT TO DO IFPLAN A FAILS

DON’T PANIC

STRATEGY

MASTERING CHALLENGING SEGMENTS

OLDER PARTICIPANTS

DISABILITY & ACCESSIBILITY

CHILDREN

HIGH END B2B

FLEXIBILTY

SAFEGUARD YOUR TESTING: EMPLOY DAMAGE LIMITATION

HERDING CATS…IT CAN BE DONE

Image source:Published on January 2014 by Glenda Stovall under Cathttp://pulpbits.com/5-excellent-herding-cats-picture/cats-picture/

CONFIRMATIONS:BEST PRACTICE

Confirmation email

Reminder email

Call

PREVENTINGNO SHOWS

All day standby

Back up

“… your name is Jane?”

CHECK ID

MEET, GREET, SHOW ME THE MONEY

1. Brief2. Create a screener3. How to recruit4. Mastered

challenging segments

5. Plan B6. Incentives7. Safeguard testing

SUMMARY

PICK MYBRAINS

RESOURCESMembership & guidelinesMRS code of conductData Protectionhttp://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/DoSearch

Books Kim Goodwin: Designing in the Digital Age Mike Kuniavsky: Observing the User Experience:

WebHow to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies, Deborah Hinder and Jakob Nielson http://nngroup.com/reports/tips/recruiting

Webcredible www.webcredible.co.ukhttp://www.usability.gov/

Twitter@people4research